Questions tagged [difficulty-rating]

A question about assessing or adjusting the difficulty level of a puzzle.

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Sudoku android App - Difficulty Level

I have an android sudoku app and I'm doing the following to check if the generated sudoku is unique: Remove a number Run a solver Check if the puzzle is still unique Repeat until solver is unable to ...
Rafail Antoniadis's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
989 views

Design of enigmatic puzzles

I've been trying to practice my enigmatic puzzle design skills, since these are the kinds of puzzles you find in many video games. (That is, puzzles in games don't often come with explicit ...
Joshua Taylor's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
110 views

Cryptic clue for business people?

I have been asked to produce something funny or interesting in a video for work (yay working from home, right?)... so I decided to produce a "Puzzle Hunt". As part of it I was hoping for ...
Graylocke's user avatar
  • 2,433
11 votes
2 answers
875 views

Can you translate these sentences from an unknown language?

This is a puzzle based around a fictional language. The goal is to learn the language well enough to provide a close English translation of the 4 goal sentences. You do this by cross referencing the ...
DiputsMonro's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
853 views

How can this puzzle be solved without guessing?

This puzzle was given to my 8 year old from the school. My child was struggling, so I gave it a bash, but was unable. I do sudoku regularly so know most methods of solving. I gave it to my husband and ...
Claire Taylor's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
509 views

How long should an anagram be in order to be solvable by a human?

I'm writing some puzzles for a bunch of smart friends, but I'm unsure if the puzzle is too easy or too hard. For instance, an anagram like this: fangos theorem Should be solvable by a human without ...
Chaotic's user avatar
  • 1,595
9 votes
2 answers
344 views

Generating different difficulties in custom puzzle

first of all this is my first time asking something here so please let me know if I am doing something wrong or asking it on the wrong place. I have a custom puzzle model where I need to generate ...
Sentry's user avatar
  • 91
2 votes
3 answers
1k views

Hardest slitherlink you know [closed]

What is the hardest slitherlink board you have seen/solved/tried to solve? I've tried googling for some hard ones but came up with simple ones or sites describing what slitherlink even is... So in ...
NPS's user avatar
  • 187
12 votes
3 answers
1k views

In the Undead Game, what makes one board more difficult than another?

In the Undead Game, what makes one board more difficult than another? The game is defined like this: A 4x4 (or 5x5, etc) grid has some random squares filled with diagonal lines representing mirrors. ...
Vivek's user avatar
  • 253
4 votes
1 answer
524 views

Estimate beginner, mediocre, advanced & expert on puzzle games

I've created the Hannoi Towers, Lights out and not sure about the original name of this game. Now, when I want to create badges (beginner, expert etc.) for the puzzlers I stumbled upon a problem, I ...
Toughwin Games's user avatar
11 votes
3 answers
901 views

Puzzle design: How to incorporate confirmation of an answer?

Sometimes when I'm designing a puzzle which has more than one stage, I'd like to incorporate a 'check' for some of the answers (e.g. the answers of the earlier stages). Example: This puzzle needed 2 ...
A E's user avatar
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9 votes
2 answers
982 views

The strength of ciphers against brute force methods - what makes it more difficult but keeps it fair for humans?

EDIT: We have a couple of cipher puzzles on this site which use primitive, simple ciphers like Caesar, Bacon and substitution ciphers, and some of these puzzles combine them. This made me wonder ...
BmyGuest's user avatar
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11 votes
3 answers
3k views

What should you look for when rating the difficulty of a puzzle?

After you're finished making a puzzle, what types of details should you look for when rating it's difficulty? What makes a puzzle easier or harder? Keep in mind a puzzle includes both the question and ...
warspyking's user avatar
  • 14.4k
9 votes
1 answer
367 views

What factors affect the difficulty of Hamiltonian puzzles?

There is a type of puzzle which can be modelled as finding a Hamiltonian path through a graph. One example is the Icosian game. What factors affect the difficulty of such puzzles, to be solved by ...
congusbongus's user avatar
4 votes
4 answers
4k views

Is there a rating system for crossword puzzles?

On searching the internet for difficult crossword puzzles I find that the New York Times is often mentioned. But is there a rating system? If so how does it work?
James Jenkins's user avatar
16 votes
3 answers
2k views

Are there any popular puzzles with polynomial-time algorithms?

First, a little background: as I noted in my answer to another question here, most of the puzzles that seem to stay popular for extended periods of time are canonically 'hard' in an algorithmic sense: ...
Steven Stadnicki's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
5k views

Are there 'Hexanum' puzzles that require advanced methods to solve? [closed]

The puzzle below features each week in a TV guide. It's called "Number Workout" there but I've done a bit of research and it seems to be called "Hexanum" elsewhere. It bears some resemblance to Sudoku,...
DisgruntledGoat's user avatar
11 votes
4 answers
946 views

How to rate difficulty of a classic riddle?

How, as a writer of riddles, can I rate their difficulty? I guess, for me alone, knowing the answer even before the riddle existed, it's pretty much impossible, and I should need some external help. ...
SF.'s user avatar
  • 1,366
34 votes
6 answers
35k views

What are the criteria for determining the difficulty of Sudoku puzzle?

What are the criteria for determining the difficulty of Sudoku puzzles? Is it a subjective estimation based on the author's experience, or are there any precise guidelines? For example, there are ...
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